Clubs – Yeshiva University High School for Boys – MTA

Clubs

Art

Students meet regularly to learn a variety of art forms, ranging from cartooning to portrait drawing.

Chess

This team practices, studies, and competes within the group itself and against other schools in the Yeshiva High School Chess League.

College Bowl

The college bowl team is an elite group of students that compete in Jeopardy-like trivia competitions against other yeshiva high schools.

Hatzioni

The Zionist organization of YUHSB offers regular Israel centric programming. The club coordinates events, speakers, meetings with political leaders, and puts together the annual MTAPAC Washington lobbying mission.

Library Squad

Students in the Library Square help maintain order and cleanliness in the library.

Math Club

The match club provides regular meetings in which students discuss stimulating math problems. Students in the club also participate in the American Math Competition (AMC).

Model UN

Each year, yeshiva high school students from across the continent (and beyond) attend the Model United Nations conference hosted by Yeshiva University. At the conference, students serve as delegates for a designated country, representing their countries interests in a variety of committees.

NYPAC

MTA’s New York Political Action Club provides students the opportunity to learn about city and state government, and about political advocacy. Members discuss bipartisan ideas, policies, and initiatives and debate their benefits and drawbacks as well as their impact on New Yorkers.​ The club has met with political leaders at City Hall and hosted local politicians as well.

Robotics

Students in the club work together over the course of the year to build a robot that they use to compete in a citywide and statewide robotics competition.

Sneakers

Founded by entrepreneurial freshmen, club members learn about and discuss the latest trends in sneaker fashion. Additionally, the club hopes to attend Sneake Con and work together to design official school sneakers.

Social Media

This club meets to discuss and strategize how to best publicize all the incredible clubs and events we have to offer at MTA.

Band

Under the guidance of Music instructor Mr. David Ross, the school band(s) perform at the School’s chagigas and other events throughout the year.

Chidon Hatanach

Study individually for a test on select portions of Tanach. The students who score the highest in the country go on to a global competition that takes place in Israel. The only two Americans to have ever won the global competition have both been MTA students: R. Jeremy Wieder (’88; now a YU Rosh Yeshiva) in 1987 and Yishai Eisenberg (’15) in 2013.

Debate

Under the guidance of longtime debate coach Mrs. Harriet Levitt, students on the debate team compete in either novice or experienced debates against other yeshiva high schools as well as in the annual “Great Debate” hosted at MTA. The yeshiva debate league was, in fact, started here at MTA.

Intramurals

Basketball, football, and soccer intramurals are a great way to play competitively with friends during lunch breaks every week. Open to all students; no tryout required.

LionsLive

In partnership with MacsLive, the broadcast home of YU athletics, students are trained to produce and stream live broadcasts of MTA athletic events.

Mock Trial

Team members practice and serve as either lawyers or witnesses in the NY state Mock Trial Competition. In 2014-15, the team advanced to so far that just 32 NYC teams remained!

MTA-TV

Students in the club work on a variety of film projects over the course of the year. In 2014, the club was awarded Honorable Mention by C-SPAN for their entry in the network’s StudentCam competition.

Outdoors

The MTA Mountain Lions regularly enjoy nature and explore the outdoors via a variety of activities that include hiking, biking, and other activities. Students also learn wilderness survival skills.

SABR

MTA is just the third high school in the nation to open up an official chapter of SABR (Society for Baseball Research). Together, the students analyze sports data and formulate team and player standing and performance projections.

Stock Market Competition

Members learn how to invest and track stocks through a competition that involves investing hypothetical money. Watch out, Warren Buffett.

Sports Management

Club members learn about the sports industry through the practical application of sports marketing and operations. The club hosts occasional guest speakers (former NBA Commissioner David Stern spoke in 2014-15) and field trips to sports venues such as Madison Square Garden, the Prudential Center, MetLife Stadium, Red Bull Arena, and ESPN.

Book & Film

Club members read books ranging from classic, sci-fi, fiction to fantasy. They then watch the movies the books inspired and hold discussions.

Chorus

The Chorus is the school’s acapela group and sings at chagigas, the school dinner and graduation. The group also competes in the annual yeshiva male choir competition – and has won three out of the past four years!

Extemporaneous Speaking

Students learn the art of speaking off the cuff by presenting topics that are provided to them only minutes before.

Jerusalem Marathon

Student travel to Israel to compete in the Jerusalem Marathon, while raising money for a tzedakah organization that is determined annually.

Machshevet Harav

Students meet with a faculty member to discuss Jewish philosophy based on the teachings of “The Rav,” Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik.

Model Congress

Students become “congressmen” and discuss important political topics – and pass bills – at the annual “Model Congress” convention, where they are joined by students from many other yeshiva high schools.

MTAHACKERS

A subsidiary of the undergraduate college student programming club known as YUHACKERS, the MTAHACKERS works with leaders of the college club to learn coding and develop websites, apps and hardware.

Photography

Students meet to discuss the art of taking the perfect picture. Additionally, they take pictures during all school events and share them with the MTA family.

Shakespeare Competition

Students compete by presenting a prepared Shakespeare passage theatrically. The winner of the MTA contest moves on to the NY state contest.

Student Council

Each year, interested students of each grade campaign for election to the Student Council. Elected members meet weekly to advocate for their grade’s needs, to provide ideas to continue to enhance the school culture and to help plan different programs.

Torah Bowl

The Torah Bowl team competes in a Jeopardy-style Torah competition against other yeshiva high schools. Students prepare rigorously for each competition and MTA has historically faired extremely well.

Publications

A Lion's Life

The weekly e-newsletter covers the school events of each week.

Hatzioni

A monthly publication put out by the Hatzioni club; the high-end magazine features articles relating to Israel.

Perchei Yitzchak

Incredibly, a number of seniors each year put together a Torah journal that includes articles on Talmudic topics from many of our Rebbeim and students. The articles, written in Hebrew, are of a high caliber and reflect a deep knowledge of the various Torah subjects.

Currents

This magazine explores contentious issues. Students submit articles the discuss facets of contemporary issues.

Out of Bounds

A monthly student publication on current topics in professional sports.

Polis

A publication featuring articles about current events and political issues.

The Academy News

The Academy News is MTA’s longest running student publication and is the recipient of numerous national scholastic awards. MTA students write in depth about the various happenings at MTA, explore the world at large, and conduct interesting interviews with various MTA personalities.

Elchanite

Much work and effort goes in to producing the annual MTA yearbook; this publication has been ongoing since it was first produced in 1920 in honor of the school’s first graduating class.

Pearls of Wisdom

A compilation of student poetry and creative writing collected throughout the year. The publication is named in memory of Pearly Mayefsky, a longtime MTA English instructor who passed away in 1991.

Shema Koleinu

Shema Koleinu is the weekly Dvar Torah publication related to the parshas hashavua; it is distributed to shuls throughout the tri-state area and posted to YUTorah.org.

Rabbi Danny Konigsberg

Director of Student Activities
dkonigsberg@yuhsb.org